From The Top
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day one hundred and seventeen: He's only got five kids and this is the first time they come together.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third, fourth, and fifty cycle. Now here's cycle 6!_

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**"From The Top"  
Will + Rachel, Tina, Mercedes, Kurt, Artie**

Rachel arrived first. Never to waste time, she sat at the piano, warming up. She didn't know what to expect from this meet… she didn't know who else had signed up, who would be there… She didn't take Spanish, so she mostly knew him as being part of faculty and nothing more. She didn't know about his merits as a Glee Club director, so she'd looked him up. Once she knew he had been in Glee Club himself, and a winning one at that, she was satisfied.

When the piano player arrived, she excused herself and gave him back his seat. She barely had a few seconds to herself before someone else arrived.

Kurt had made a bee line for school and walked a cautious path all around during the day, to make sure he wouldn't be tossed in something or get something tossed at him. He didn't want to show up with slushie or yesterday's lunch dripping from his clothes when he went in to Glee practice. He'd had a close call with Puck, but he'd made it. When he arrived, the only other student there was Rachel Berry… of course.

"Hello, Rachel," he spoke courteously. She looked at him, giving something halfway between a winning smile and surprise.

"Kurt," she nodded. "I saw your name on the sign-up sheet," she continued after a moment. He put his bag down and trailed along the piano.

"Is it true what they say about Mr. Ryerson?" he looked back at her with a slight air of mischief.

"Someone came forward, I don't think we should comment…" she started like an official at a press conference.

"By 'someone' do you mean you?" he squinted at her. She cleared her throat, shrugged.

"Glee Club is under better management now."

"He's not going to make us do the Macarena, is he?" Kurt chuckled.

"Mr. Schuester was in Glee Club, right here at McKinley, when he was in high school. They got trophies and everything. So he should be a heck of a lot better than what we had before," she nodded.

"Are you running his fan site or something?" he shook his head, getting a glare from her.

Mercedes wasn't sure whether to get her hopes up going in to this. From what she'd seen, not too many people had signed up. They'd probably close them down before long, and she'd be right back where she'd started… almost made her not want to bother, but she figured she should at least give it a shot.

She arrived to find Rachel and Kurt, neither of them talking. They just stood on their own, waiting. Kurt was the first to see her, and he gave a small smile.

"Welcome," he nodded, his enthusiasm low, considering their low numbers.

"Hi," Rachel smiled to her as well, although as their gazes crossed, there was something in the air like a diva standoff.

"Whatever you do, don't question Schuester cred in front of her," Kurt spoke in a near whisper as he approached Mercedes, and she laughed.

In the hall, Tina walked along at Artie's side as they headed to their first Glee Club meet. She fussed with her jacket. "I-I should have w-worn something else…" she sighed.

"No," he shook his head. "You look great, I promise," he assured her. Once she smiled, he nodded.

"Th-there aren't m-man people anyway," she shrugged.

"And between the two of us, which one do you think is going to get the most of these looks?" He put on confused, then pity, then awkward face, helping her relax a bit.

"D-don't worry about them," she shook her head.

"I won't if you won't," he nodded, and she nodded back.

They arrived to find much the same as Mercedes found when she arrived, three people standing quietly. Mercedes and Kurt were whispering, but all in all the room was almost too quiet.

"H-hi," Tina spoke, and the three looked back to find her and Artie at the door. As Artie had told her, the three pairs of eyes only rested on her a moment before they found him and settled there.

"Artie," Rachel tried not to sound surprised as she spoke. "I… I thought I saw your name up there," she nodded. He gave a short smile and nod back before Mr. Schuester arrived.

"Alright, everyone's here," he clapped his hands together, sounding pleased. Rachel looked around before she looked back at him.

"Wait… that's it?"

"It's more than you had before," Kurt pointed out in a snark. Before Rachel could reply, Mr. Schuester pulled out a box and a stack of sheets.

"Okay, let's get started. Song and gloves, pass them around," he handed the sheets to Kurt, who passed them out, and the box to Artie, who went around holding it out for everyone to take a pair. When Rachel saw the song title, she quickly slipped on her pair of gloves, fixing her hair. But upon closer inspection of her sheets, her enthusiasm was shaken.

"Who gets the solo?" she tried to keep her voice curious and not too inquisitive.

"Artie," Mr. Schuester nodded over at him. Having been passing out the gloves, he hadn't really looked at his sheets. When he did, he smiled, first to himself, then to Mr. Schuester. He looked to Tina, and she was smiling too, holding her hand out for a high five. Mercedes and Kurt gave congratulatory nods as well. "Alright?" Mr. Schuester looked to Rachel. She looked to her sheets, trying to bury her negativity for the moment. It was just one song, right?

"Uh, yeah, sure," she promised, lifting a quick smile to him and the others.

"Okay," Mr. Schuester nodded, sounding and looking excited as they prepared to kick off their first number as a Glee Club. "We'll go through it together and then we'll see what you've got." He knew they were missing something, but still he was feeling he was doing right, and they'd find their way eventually.

THE END


End file.
